Professional Accomplishments
Driving Business Growth
David Levine Professional Accomplishments:
A Career of Impact and Growth
My career has taken me from small software companies and IT consulting, to municipal government, to teaching at the college level, and to owning and operating a nationally recognized family business. Even while recovering from a bone marrow transplant, I launched a consulting firm that helped small business owners grow.
At every stage, I delivered measurable success—strengthening teams, driving growth, and leaving a positive impact on clients and companies alike.
Today, I’m ready to place my energy into working within an organization where I can bring together all of these skills, experiences, and insights—helping that organization grow and thrive.
I Am Your Virtual Professional – Professional Accomplishments
- Leveraged AI as a productivity multiplier: used agent mode for research, built custom GPTs for industry tasks, and designed advanced prompts beyond Google search — delivering faster insights, better decisions, scalable content, and consistent time and cost savings.
- Placed 12 websites on page 1 of Google for competitive keywords. Several sites are now recommended directly by ChatGPT and other LLMs, in some cases leading to a 100%+ increase in clicks and traffic.
- Served as a trusted digital growth partner, helping companies develop new verticals that consistently delivered a measurable ROI and expanded their customer base.
- Acted as a digital advisor and coach, guiding a company from concept to launch. Supported optimization of their website and built a marketing strategy that positioned them for sustainable growth.
- Transformed a client’s idea into a full brand: created the company name, brand identity, content strategy, and website — resulting in strong search rankings on both Google and LLM platforms.
- Leveraged Google Business Profiles to put local businesses “on the map.” Optimized keywords and categories that produced measurable visibility gains within weeks of launch.
- Modernized a client’s website that hadn’t been updated since 2017. Delivered a facelift and fresh content strategy that turned the site into an effective sales tool — directly supporting new client outreach and lead conversion.
Public Speaking – Professional Accomplishments
- Represented Illinois Nut & Candy as an industry expert on national platforms including The Today Show, How It’s Made, and various Chicago TV and radio news segments — blending storytelling with actionable insights.
- Presented at national and regional conferences such as the Impact Food & Beverage Summit, the Innovation Enterprise Summit, and the Galactosemia Foundation Conference — addressing topics ranging from retail challenges to continuous improvement.
- Shared practical strategies with local networking groups (Evanston Chamber, Founding Moms, Business By Referrals Chicago, Cup of Joe Networking) on subjects including networking, customer service, and leveraging AI for small business growth.
- Adapted seamlessly to virtual platforms, delivering SEO- and AI-focused presentations to professional networking groups in 2025 — helping entrepreneurs apply digital tools to real-world business challenges.
Illinois Nut & Candy Professional Accomplishments
- Quadrupled corporate gifting sales by cultivating business relationships that led to warm client referrals.
- Increased retail street traffic 100% within four years of purchasing Illinois Nut & candy by turning a drab retail store front store into a Skokie landmark.
- Created reputation for customer service that led to a loyal customer following, winning third place in the Village of Skokie 2014 Merchant of the Year followed by winning First Place the following year. Then in 2017 recognized by Chicago Magazine (TM) as one of the top 10 places in Skokie.
- Used local television and newspaper exposure to create national brand recognition, including The Today Show, How It’s Made, and Four Weddings leading to 20% sales jump after product placement.
- Used unconventional marketing techniques to win local awards including 2009 Best New Product, 2012 local hamburger contest, and a 2010 truck wrapping contest all of which lead to name placement both locally as well as nationally.
- Relaunched the companies website from an online brochure into an online sales tool that brings in an additional 5% annually without paying for click, not to count thousands of sales that result from the site being used as brochure ware.
- Increased sales by over 60% while not increasing staff costs proportionality.
- Change the Christmas holiday season from the first two weeks of December to being a Holiday season starting the week before Halloween and ending the week after New Years. This increased corporate sales by adding two and half months to the gifting season.
- Renegotiated, utility contracts on regular intervals keeping the costs constant of lowering costs resulting in annual savings.
Village of Glencoe Professional Accomplishments
- Eliminated printed Village Trustee agendas by creating a paperless packet, saving $5000 annually.
- Developed and gained approval for Village’s first Information Technology Disaster Recovery Plan, resulting in a document that was usable.
- Designed and implemented an integrated audio visual technology solution for the Council Chamber resulting in a solution that exceeded expectations while staying within the a predetermined budget.
- Developed RFP’s for equipment leading to the acquisition of equipment for various departments with user service level agreements that guaranteed departments would not be without vital tools needed to complete jobs.
Fastweb Professional Accomplishments
- Reduced downtime by managing quality assurance projects.
- Condensed development time of small projects by 50% within six months by creating user-friendly Word templates that forced teams to define requirements.
Xpedior (formerly Metamor) Professional Accomplishments
- Developed and personally delivered software training to over 100 staff members as part of a conversion from a paper based system to an electronic database. Manual was delivered on time and training allowed users to begin using system upon installation.
- Reduced development and testing time by 20% for a dot-com by developing documentation and testing procedures.
Strata Marketing Professional Accomplishments
- Shortened training cycle by rewriting training materials reducing the need to retrain clients on site.
Educator Professional Accomplishments
- Taught High School History and Social Sciences at Carl Schurz High School.
- Taught college level introduction to computer courses at Roosevelt University and Oakton Community College always receiving exemplary reviews from the students.